CITES Restrictions on Rosewood is very alarming for EILA

2017-06-08 String Instrument News

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) is being protested by (EILA) Entente International de Luthiers et Archetiers because of the restrictions they made for Rosewood. Rosewood is a type of wood variety used in making other parts of musical instruments like violin pegs, fingerboard and necks and other parts. EILA made a campaign against this because derivatives parts such as sawn wood, violin pegs, logs and musical instrument fittings involving rosewood are affected.
Appendix II of CITES states that 250 species of rosewood are under its restriction list. The inconveniences that this limitation caused are what concerns EILA the most. Difficulties in obtaining permits for international commercial shipment regarding time and cost puts a toll on instrument makers. The Peg manufacturers in the UK only use two planks of rosewood a year, but they have to pay the £59 permit cost. Peter Beare, the former president of EILA, said that the peg manufacturers’ rosewood usage has minimum effect on the entire rosewood species.
The restriction of CITES on rosewood also puts a toll on traveling musicians. If their musical instrument contains materials made from one of the species listed on CITES, they have to obtain a certificate for travel clearance. However, there are exemptions. Only those instruments that contain rosewood components less than 10 kg are allowed to go without getting a license from CITES.

The disturbing thing according to Beare is the huge possibility of including finished products in their restrictions. As of the moment, annotation #5 states that finished goods are not part of their restrictions. However, if the CITES was able to amend some of their restrictions involving the parts and derivatives (which they added to annotations in 2013 which only includes logs, saw woods and veneer sheets) under their restriction, it is possible that they might remove annotation #5. When this happens, it will significantly affect both musicians and instrument makers.